Site selected for monument noting city’s role in slave trade

NEWPORT, R.I. – The Rhode Island city of Newport has picked a site for a monument memorializing Africans brought to the port city to become slaves and those who died during the trans-Atlantic journey.

The Newport Daily News reports that the City Council endorsed erecting a memorial on a city-owned plot near other historical landmarks.

The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project has organized a nationwide effort to place markers at more than 40 ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where slaves arrived or where ships were sent to be used in the slave trade.

The Middle Passage refers to the forced migration across the Atlantic Ocean of more than 10 million Africans, many of whom died on the way.

The Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Committee recommended the site.

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Information from: The Newport Daily News.